Google's new search technology and unwanted search finds

Google is updating its search algorithm - the software which determines what search results come up and in what order - to be more effective. By more effective I mean getting the right web page - the right answer to the question - straight away at the top of the page and even as the first link.

This is a next generation technology which will make finding information ever more easy. But what of things which society doesn't want people to find? For example the ingredients list of a suicide cocktail and where to buy them would be a brilliant search result for those who actively want to die. Current searches don't easily reveal this sort of information. In fact the Wikipedia page has been altered to remove the ingredients list of at least one suicide cocktail.

Will Google continue this subtle censorship of suicide literature or will they automatically serve up the best information which directly answers the query? I suspect Google will adopt the former approach and have less relevant web pages ranking above the information which helps a person end their life. This is in line with current suicide prevention techniques which use suppression of information and access to self-termination materials.

This sort of censorship has never been challenged. It is a shame but it is done to save lives. The problem is some of those people don't want to be saved. They're looking for a solution which they've consciously decided upon: the time and place of their death.

There may be other keywords which also have similar sorts of search censorship from paedophile porn to hacking sites. Standard algorithms did not censor well made and well ranked sites without manual intervention but this manual intervention is easier and perhaps more commonplace when developing a semantic search system, I.e. to get good search results the programmers must have had to spend more time ensuring good results come higher up the rankings. They may have spent time making sure good information about dangerous, illegal or subjectively described as mentally ill or immoral keywords was suppressed and some of this could have been done through manual intervention.

With so much effort put in to suppression suicide by suppressing and monitoring online communication and information it is likely this trend will continue irrespective of privacy and freedom of information. The right to die will change all this I hope.

Sent from my smartphone